Come 2017, Cillian Murphy will be storming the beaches of Dunkirk for Christopher Nolan’s World War II epic, and already a series of set stills showcase the film’s massive scale.
But before becoming embroiled with the Axis powers in Operation Dynamo, Murphy will be circling back to WWII for Operation Anthropoid, a period drama that places both he and Fifty Shades of Grey star Jamie Dornan in the shoes of two Czech operatives.
Now due to hit theaters on August 12, Anthropoid will chronicle their daring mission to assassinate SS officer Reinhard Heydrich, a powerful chess piece on the Nazi’s sprawling theater of war, who then presided over Czechoslovakia and stood as third-in-command to the Third Reich.
Sean Ellis will direct the picture, with the official synopsis outlining Anthropoid as the story of “two soldiers from the Czech army-in-exile, Josef Gabcik (Murphy) and Jan Kubis (Dornan), who are parachuted into their occupied homeland in December 1941. With limited intelligence and little equipment in a city under lockdown, they endeavor to find a way to assassinate Heydrich, an operation that would change the course of the war and the face of Europe forever.”
Anthropoid will make its theatrical bow via Bleecker Street on August 12, when it will go up against Chris Pine-led drama Hell or High Water.
